Masterplan Architects > Abu Dhabi

_project Name: Al Benaa

_location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

_type: Mixed use Master Plan

_brief: To design a self-contained "work-live" development incorporating low-cost housing, commercial units and amenities. To implement wherever possible sustainable features without impacting on overall costs.

_considerations: To create an environment conducive to social living by incorporating water and green spaces. Development of an underground system at a later stage is also a possibility.

_response: The Master Plan accommodates 25,000 residents in a mixture of high-density towers, mid-density apartment blocks and low-density individual houses with private gardens. Space is provided for 42 commercial blocks, a hospital and a mosque dedicated to the needs of the development's residents.

The development is based upon a logical grid of wide, principle roads and secondary residential streets, facilitating movement from one area to another by a dedicated public transport network. Trees and canopies protect pedestrian walkways from the glare of the sun and solar lamp-posts provide renewable lighting after dark to assist pedestrian circulation.

Central to the project are a series of parks and lakes providing natural, communal locations around which the residential units fan out towards the extremities of the development.

Provision is made for energy-efficient applications dependant upon overall budget such as tinted glass and solar-thermal plaques in all units. Similarly, the grid layout facilitates the simple location of underground routes and stations should this become a reality.